Taco Bell- Be a Man

At first when I was watching this taco bell ad I thought it was a ford commercial, but then I realized that the narrator was being too direct. 

In this commercial, a deep voiced man is telling the target audience--males-- that in order to be a man they must drive a big truck, they must have rippling abs and spray cologne on themselves, they must lift big, be surrounded by women, swing hard, wear specific clothes, and shave etc...However at  the very end clip three men who are watching this so called commercial, are eating the triple stacked steak stack on flatbread from taco bell.  The narrator voice changes to the regular taco bell guy and he says if you need someone to tell you to be a man than you are not the type of guy to be eating this steak sandwich.

It's funny that after watching that whole commercial of how they say you need to be a man, Taco Bell did the exact same thing.  They appealed to the desire for masculinity and to achieve because for men, to be manly is winning as media portrays it.

Once again media is sending the incorrect message that men have to be hyper-masculine.   They even go  on to  indirectly insult men that need to be told these things or who don't eat Taco Bell. One of the reality assumptions in this video is that real men like lots of steak. Once again incorrect. This ad preys on men's insecurities about how to be manly. Although I don't think any man will take this commercial to heart, the messages it I sending to society will affect how they and even how young boys will think in the future.

Beyoncé is Queen

 

Every magazine she graces, every new song released, it's no doubt that Beyoncé can do no wrong. I have never seen an article or entertainment news  video, shaming her body, her fashion, or her choices.  And it hit me, when did Beyoncé become this embodiment of perfect? I have never dislike Beyoncé and  I think she's a talented artist, and a beautiful woman with a seemingly perfect life.  But I realized that this OPINION  of Beyoncé  started becoming a fact and  I questioned how the role of media played a part in making  Beyoncé this 'perfect' being. 

The media portrays Beyoncé as perfect, so undoubtedly the outcome is that majority of society finds her to be perfect too.   

One of her songs is called "pretty hurts". It's a very empowering song to women  and tells of the  pain that  girls and women go through  because of the standards of society. This connects with the documentary Missrepresentation because  women who suffer from objectification  are most commonly women celebrities.  Beyoncé, although found favorable in mainstream media's eyes, has not escaped the  common objectification of women. 

Beyoncé who has many young girls as a part of her fan base was the perfect singer to send the message on how hard it is to be girl.  It teaches an important message that not every girl is perfect and that its impossibly hard to try and live up to a perfect that we can never reach.

The World of Advertising for my Dad

Being in critical thinking has really opened my eyes to the world of advertisement and how companies like to mess with our psyche to make us think we need their product.  Advertising has become something very underhanded.  Marketers prey on our fears and our desires and I wholly believe that it is advertisers that control society today. 

Just today I was talking with my Dad about getting him  a new phone since his malfunctions a lot.  It never seems to work when we need it to.  He wanted to get something like the Samsung galaxy note 4 phone and when I asked him why, he came up with the reasons behind his wants.

His main reason was because he wanted to be able to write things down with his stylus, which I found to be an absolutely ridiculous reason.  I told him that he could write things down in his phone by typing it into the memo or reminders, or his calendar, but he really felt the need to use a stylus and quote on quote "notepad"--the phone itself. 

I know that my Dad is forgetful and having a phone with a stylus and notepad is not going to make him any better at remembering to do things.  However, the company has sold this idea so well that a person who has this phone will be organized, that my Dad has fallen into the consumer trap. 

We will see what new phone he ends up getting by JUNE. 

Getting a Little...Old

I found this hilarious jab done by Huffington Post at Abercrombie and Fitch, the infamous teen retailer.  After the CEO made a remark about how he didn't want fat people shopping at his store in 2013, the sales at the store dropped, not surprisingly.  I was a huge fan of Abercrombie in 7th and 8th grade.  Still to this day I would buy clothes there, but usually I find it either too expensive or not unique enough.  Abercrombie, who features topless men, and scantily clad women, on the cover of their bags and on most of their window/online advertisements, has always done a great job in making the clothes seem attractive. It uses transfer association because consumers would feel that they too could be just as sexy and attractive as the models, or they could also snag a handsome man if they wore the clothes. 
Abercrombie did a great job in making me feel like less of a person because I wasn't skinny enough to fit a size zero or I was too short and the pants could never fit properly.  Abercrombie is one of the many media influences on young girls and how they perceive their bodies. By excluding sizes such as XL they set up a barrier for what was "cool" or socially acceptable, since Abercrombie was a big deal (at least for me in middle school). 

I would have to admit though, that the way Abercrombie advertised to teens was very effective since everyone wants to be apart of the "in" group-the "cool kids". 

With new retailers, and also less customers, who have been off put by the CEO and the message that Abercrombie sends to young girls and teens, Huffington took the opportunity to display a tangible representation of the store.  This old store is not the newest coolest thing anymore. 

Who Makes Cool?

So recently I have been thinking about buying some new clothes since its summer and it's been ingrained in my mind that a new season equals buying new clothes.  As a critical thinker now, I have been very cautious with my urges to buy things in general.  I can now see the appeals and the ad techniques that advertisers use. However, no matter how much I can identify the messages and techniques used, I realize I still have the desire to buy new things.

Now that I have already established that I want to buy summer clothes--swimsuits, shorts, tanktops etc...It's important to talk about why I feel the need to buy such new clothes, when my closet is stuffed with clothes that still fit me perfectly (since I stopped growing about three years ago.) The media sends messages to me everyday advertising the new coolest things and as more and more people get this new, cool thing, I feel more pressure to buy it as well.  The pressure from the media to buy new things is a heavy load, but the pressure I put on myself is even harder.  I made a revelation after watching Missrepresentation, in my last post. Put shortly I realized that girls feel pressure to look good all the time.  In order to look good we feel that we need the coolest stuff to wear, and look the prettiest, and follow the latest trends. In the documentary, Merchants of Cool, advertisers said that it was the teens, the consumers who "invent" what is cool, but that is not the case. 

To a certain extent it is the teens who are dictating what is cool and what is not cool, but as long as advertisers keep making the same types of clothes and advertising them with pretty models who are surrounded by friends and boys, It seems that advertisers actually have the power. 

Scrolling through the endless wonders of online shopping websites, I saw many repeated styles.  For example crop tops, or kimonos, or another one of my favorites, flowy shorts.  As of right now I find those styles to be trendy, but these styles have been blown up by the media so much already.  And STILL people are buying these trends.  The minute that advertisers bring out the next new style, girls will jump on the chance to buy  it.  As a consumer who wants to buy new clothes, unless the advertiser comes up with a new trendy style and starts selling, no one will be able to buy it, so doesn't that make the advertisers the dictators of cool or no?

If you managed to read this whole thing great job!

Who Wore it Best?

I absolutely love gossip magazines, but I rarely get the chance to read them.  So in my most recent visit to the orthodontist, who has and endless supply of magazines from People to Us to Star, I got to read up on some juicy gossip.  One of my favorite segments in the magazines is called who wore it better?  I always scrutinized the women who appeared on the page, and decided who looked prettier.  Then later checked if my opinion matched with the polls.  After watching the documentary Missrepresentation in my critical thinking class, I realized how horribly the media affected, not only the way I looked but how most of society looks at women

Scrolling through pictures on google and based on my experience of reading magazines with this specific segment, I noticed that only women are featured.  In other words, only women are scrutinized, objectified, judged by their outward appearance and ranked by the ever growing standards of beauty.  The women in the pictures are being put on display, not taking into account that they have feelings too.  Realizing this, I understood why girls are so hard on themselves regarding appearance.  It also one of the reasons why we see each other as competition rather than someone we can be friends with. If I were placed in a situation where someone I knew or didn't know was ranked "better" in this case, looks, I would feel absolutely degraded and not only grow to jealous of that person, but also start to hate myself. 

In the picture above both, Gage Golightly and Jenna Dewan Tatutm, look stunning.  There is no need to degrade  a person by their looks.  The magazine company only asked 100 people, which I feel is a small number.  Only 100 people judged these women by their looks, but the whole world will see the unfair results of Gage Golightly's 27%. 

Influenced by media, who's teaching us to judge each other by appearance, It s no wonder that us girls and women feel so much pressure to look good all the time.

Lancome La Vie Est Belle

"In a world full of dictates and conventions, could there be another way?

 

According to Lancôme there is another way--buy perfume. 

In this commercial, the first scene shows the city lighting up, looking like a river of diamonds covering the streets.  Then Julia Roberts appears in a sparkly white dress underneath an equally sparkly chandelier.  She's in a white dress, while everyone else is wearing black. Julia is illuminated by white light and she walks to a mirror, where she notices that everyone, even herself, are being controlled by diamond strings, like they are marionettes.  There is an obvious theme going on here--sparkles and diamonds.  Still, I don't know what is being advertised. 

The message that this ad is trying to send is that wearing Lancôme perfume will make one feel like the most beautiful, unique woman in the room, who is completely individual, and uncontrolled by the diktats of the world. 

Violins play in the background, which gives the ad a more aristocratic air.  It makes Julia seem more prominent.  This ties in with the ad appeal of need for prominence.  This technique is use to the fullest, with all the sparkly diamonds, and glowing jewels/lights emitting from Julia's dress.  The need for autonomy is also used because Julia Roberts singles herself out by wearing white and breaking off her diamond chains, and walking up to the balcony, while everyone stares at her in amazement. 

The advertising technique it uses is Testimonial because Julia Roberts is advertising the perfume.  Julia Roberts is really successful and it adds "credibility" to the product because then people will think they can also be successful with this perfume.  It also uses snob appeal because it depicts men and women in fancy dresses and tuxedos. 

 Its settled, I need Lancôme perfume in order to be original and beautiful--NOT. I didn't think that the commercial was very ineffective for me. I think this commercial was just too much with the whole diamond theme and I had no idea what the product was until the last four seconds. Lancôme Paris perfume won't be getting my business.